Our skin is the first image each of us offers to those who behold us. From time immemorial, the appearance of the skin has been a subject of preoccupation.
Our current knowledge of the physiology of the skin now enables us to propose cosmetic solutions to the various dysfunctions induced by external aggression and aging. However, many things remain poorly elucidated, poorly understood and poorly controlled.
This is true, for instance, in the case of the general symptoms of cutaneous aging, which give rise to wrinkles and flaccid and thin skin. The treatment of those symptoms is an important subject of research for the cosmetic market.
External or internal factors can both lead to the emergence of symptoms of aging. Moreover, as skin ages, the synthesis of collagen or other macromolecules in connective tissue is slowed; proteolysis, induced by solar radiation, is accelerated and the skin grows thinner and loses elasticity.
Numerous cosmetic compositions intended to improve the appearance of facial skin have been proposed to date. These include moisturizing products, anti-wrinkle creams and smoothing and soothing lotions. Frequently, however, those products have side effects, are associated with stability problems and/or do not make good their promise over time. This is, in particular, the case for formulae containing vitamins and plant extracts.
The present invention is designed to assist in resolving the esthetic problems posed by those aging symptoms and, preferably, to address the underlying problems.
CA 2,465,123 A1to Ludin et al. discloses polypeptides of various lengths (page 4, lines 12-16) which are purportedly dermopharmaceutically and cosmetically active. The C terminal amino acid of many of these peptides is serine (“Ser”). Indeed, at page 5, lines 12-13, the '123 application discloses that the C terminal residue is “preferably derived from serine.” Table 5 on page 20 of the '123 application and claims 15, 16 and 17 identify a number of peptides of varying sizes and compositions most of which bear serine or derivatives as the C terminal amino acid.